The Body in the Library is one of the most satisfying of the twelve Marples starring Joan Hickson as a not-really-very-sweet little old lady who possesses "a mind more cynical... than any barrister you'll ever encounter.." as one older copper tells a young and ambitious inspector in this episode. Gwen Watford plays Miss Marple's batty chum from Saint Mary Meade (their home village). She is Dolly Bantry and is married to Moray Watson's daft and courtly Col. Arthur Bantry.
If Hickson's Marple displays momentary hints of menace it is only that. Hers is a very subtle and dry performance, crammed with sparkling humor that shoots out from her beady little blue eyes. Hickson was a formidable comedian and she is very much one in these shows, powdered over with politeness and modesty. She is never annoying, like Geraldine McEwen's Marple is from time to time with that Old Mother Hubbard portrayal of hers; not her fault really as the producers of that later series had a political agenda which ruined the stories and scripts and any chance of McEwen's being as good as Hickson.
With the cast alone you have one of the classics of British television from the mid-to-late 20th century. It isn't only that Joan Hickson is nigh perfect for the role of Miss Jane Marple, it is also that the supporting actors, direction, locations, props, everything are splendidly done. It took me awhile to accept the musical score because I had been watching the pretty awful Marple series with Geraldine McEwen and the score to those productions was very 20th century sounding, like the music of Prokofiev or Britten. In the Hickson series the music is disarmingly charming and almost sounds trite at first. Now it is one of the highlights in an already brilliant achievement. It is catchy and sticks in the mind, it is also frequently very funny. The ballet music in They Do It With Mirrors is hilarious.
Some of the highlights of the supporting cast are Jean Simmons, Renée Asherson, Joyce Carey, Claire Bloom and greatest of all joys, Joan Greenwood who plays Selina Hazy in At Bertram's Hotel. After this film Greenwood went on to play a brilliantly macabre Mrs Clenham in Little Dorrit, dying young at 65 and still much missed.
The vital secondary roles, inspectors, murderers, victims, chambermaids, cooks, butlers, young lovers and vicars are all appealingly cast by actors familiar to fans of British television. There are no misfires in the casting, which is very rare.
The directors take a lot of time surveying the English countryside and the sea. The series, in general, is extremely atmospheric and has just enough sinister shots to prevent the story from becoming merely light entertainment.
This Hickson Marple is the one to have in your collection if you need a Marple series to watch on demand, as I do. The Margaret Rutherford movies were bogus but entertaining, and Rutherford is her usual bumbling, hilarious self, but these Hickson shows are the real Marple as Mrs Christie intended her to be.
I rate this series a 9 because I still think there is room for something even greater and more like the original stories. Some of the Hickson stories are updated to the 1950s when the entire series takes place. It works fine, but still....
If Hickson's Marple displays momentary hints of menace it is only that. Hers is a very subtle and dry performance, crammed with sparkling humor that shoots out from her beady little blue eyes. Hickson was a formidable comedian and she is very much one in these shows, powdered over with politeness and modesty. She is never annoying, like Geraldine McEwen's Marple is from time to time with that Old Mother Hubbard portrayal of hers; not her fault really as the producers of that later series had a political agenda which ruined the stories and scripts and any chance of McEwen's being as good as Hickson.
With the cast alone you have one of the classics of British television from the mid-to-late 20th century. It isn't only that Joan Hickson is nigh perfect for the role of Miss Jane Marple, it is also that the supporting actors, direction, locations, props, everything are splendidly done. It took me awhile to accept the musical score because I had been watching the pretty awful Marple series with Geraldine McEwen and the score to those productions was very 20th century sounding, like the music of Prokofiev or Britten. In the Hickson series the music is disarmingly charming and almost sounds trite at first. Now it is one of the highlights in an already brilliant achievement. It is catchy and sticks in the mind, it is also frequently very funny. The ballet music in They Do It With Mirrors is hilarious.
Some of the highlights of the supporting cast are Jean Simmons, Renée Asherson, Joyce Carey, Claire Bloom and greatest of all joys, Joan Greenwood who plays Selina Hazy in At Bertram's Hotel. After this film Greenwood went on to play a brilliantly macabre Mrs Clenham in Little Dorrit, dying young at 65 and still much missed.
The vital secondary roles, inspectors, murderers, victims, chambermaids, cooks, butlers, young lovers and vicars are all appealingly cast by actors familiar to fans of British television. There are no misfires in the casting, which is very rare.
The directors take a lot of time surveying the English countryside and the sea. The series, in general, is extremely atmospheric and has just enough sinister shots to prevent the story from becoming merely light entertainment.
This Hickson Marple is the one to have in your collection if you need a Marple series to watch on demand, as I do. The Margaret Rutherford movies were bogus but entertaining, and Rutherford is her usual bumbling, hilarious self, but these Hickson shows are the real Marple as Mrs Christie intended her to be.
I rate this series a 9 because I still think there is room for something even greater and more like the original stories. Some of the Hickson stories are updated to the 1950s when the entire series takes place. It works fine, but still....